A Brief History of Windblowers

The idea for a music shop originated way back in 1978 during the miners strike when David Oldershaw realised that there must be more to life than being a hydraulic engineer working a three day week. The leisure industry offered a better future than the engineering industry and David had been taught the clarinet at school from the age of 11 by one of Nottinghamshire's first peripatetic teachers (Richard Mallinson).

The original shop began as the retail arm of a private teaching practise in Nottingham - a true case of a hobby developing into a career!

Windblowers proper arrived in 1983 when Margaret Frogson (now Mrs Oldershaw) joined the business as partner and the name was changed to coincide with the move to the current larger premises. The curious name was chosen for the following reasons:

• it encompassed exactly the ideas of a wind instruments specialist in only one word
• being slightly risqué, people wanted to remember it
• it allowed for future expansion of the business without the need for a name change, as long as the wind specialism was retained

The business continues today as a family concern, although none of David and Margaret's 3 children and 5 grand-children (although musical) show any signs at the moment of joining the business.

The original ethos of Windblowers, of friendliness, professionalism, old-fashioned standards of service, product knowledge linked to choice with competitive pricing still applies after nearly 30 years of trading- in short, we care about our customers.